St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-07
Rapidly Settling the Black Hills Country,
the Latter More Numerously Than
the Former.
Brief Reference to the Gordon of New
Towns That Almost Encircle
the Hills.
Death of Character Whose Meta
phorS Have Created Much
Amusement.
Collapse OF the Boycott Against an
Electric Light Company at
Rapid City.
Special Correspondence of the Globe.

much more III the agricultural than in the
mining towns-a fact that speaks for the
varied resources Of the country. Agricul-
tural. stock. lumber and building material
are destined to rival her precious minerals
as sources of wealth. Thus. while Dead
wood, with the populOus mining camps
around it, remains the mining town of the
hills, the trend of settlement is along the
foothills. A Gordon of new towns has
with in few years almost encircled the
Black Hills. Hot Springs on tho extreme
south, then Buffalo Gap. Hermosa, Rapid
City. Sturgis, Minnesota ION the extreme
north), and Sundance, Wyo., make the
circuit. A town to be built somewhere
near Jenny's Stockade, Wyo, or at
the Salt Springs on the south
western margin. will complete the
corral of the Hills. OF the towns named
all but three are county seats, and of those
three SturgiS is reaching out for the honor
by the division of Lawrence county "a bill
for which is now pending between the gov
ernor and legislature of the territory while
Buffalo Gap. or Hermosa, as capital of Gus
ter county, would be, like Barkis, willin'.
Hot Springs has its peculiar prospects in its
thermal springs and romantic resorts. Buff
falo Gap is the railroad station for the
Southern Hills. and has prospects in its
stone and building materials which are at
once nearest to market and best of any in
the Hills, especially its variegated marbles.
The town is only a little over a year old.
has no debt has never levied tax and its
license roll nearly meets all expenses: SO
that its credit ought to be A 1. But it
isn't because of a laundering tinan-
cial policy, which allows town scrip
to be redeemed regardless o.
date of issue or order of registration. The
surplus warrants not needed by the liquor
sellers have no market value; no one buys
at any price; hence the town is in default
and the liquor men control its entire finances
They are the only taxpayers and the only
buyers of script HermOsa and Rapid City
build much on the growth of agricultural
interests. The latter has the advantage of
ample water power and will add manufac-
tures-if she can manage to suppress few
of her factional LEADERS" who are inclined
to the canine-in- -the-feed-boX policy. Her
strong position as the entrepot of the CEN
trail and northern hills seems about to be
enhanced by fresh movements for the
development of her nearer mines, which
have been overshadowed by the
rapid development of the upper
Hills. A special letter needs to
be reserved for these movements
Hills. county of Butte, has lately been taken
in hand by the Minnesota Townsite and
Improvement company, organized by Hon.
John II. King, of Rapid City. who has
purchased new lands and water-power,
and secured the removal of the town thther.
One of the advantages of the new enter
prise is that it lies in the track to the Hay
creek, Wyo., coal fields. There is already
a road organized and surveyed from Dead
wood thither via Minnesota, and the fuel
district is the objective point of all roads
reaching towards the Hills. | have seen
correspondence with the head of the North
ern Pacific, which foreShadows the COM
pany'S intention to strike for this section
from Mandan. They lately sent an expert
to examine the Hay creek coal, and the
tests are said to have been satisfactory, as
this correspondence followed. The North
ern Pacific has long had a weather
eye" turned this way, not only
exports, but to protect its large cattle ship
ments from Dakota and Wyoming, which
are already invaded by the Northwestern
and prospectively threatened by the Bur-
lington II Northern, Union Pacific and
other trunk lines. The distance across to
the Hills from the Northern Pacific is only
210 miles, and the route lies through the
rich valleys of the Little Missouri and Belle
Fourch. Sundance, Wyo., is the capital of
Crook county, good range, mineral, Pc
troleum and agricultural area of 10000
square miIes-larger than Massachusetts,
New Jersey or Maryland; it would make
five Delawares. There is already emigra-
tiOn from this section to Sundance, and
much building is in progress or proposed.
These fOot-hill towns. except Rapid City,
are all small yet. There are no ''booms''
on. but we have learned in the West to
"despise not the day of small things" and
to dread the hind end of boom and mule
that have been prOdded too much.
BLACK HILLS CHARACTER.
The sudden death of eX-Probate Judge
Benedict, of Pennington county. removes
picturesque character and disturbing ele-
ment in local Republican politics. His adj
ministraton of Rapid City school funds, in
his hands. was one of the chief causes of
the defeat of almost the entire ticket last
fall, which he had been renominated to
head. | fear that the rebuke went far to
break the old mans heart. He was very
large, unkempt person. with thin, strident
voice, an earnest manner and grOtesque
speech. that combined to make him a char
acter on the stump or in court-for he had
graduated from the bar placer to the bar
legal. His heart was as large as his frame
and his oratory as expansive and untram-
meled as these grand hills-albeit. uncon-
ventional and defiant of petty grammatical
limitations. His metaphors invariably
reached the anti-climaX and generally
brought the reductio ad absurdum and the
house down-a result not less ludicrous be-
cause evidently unexpected to the
EARNEST AND ENERGETIC
c,,aoI-ar Iic aytrayapapt Lindpacc ond
eXtravagant sayings will be alike long re-
membered in the camps. Referring to the
editor of the Republican, with whom he
once had a controversy, he said: He
thinks he's done big thing, and he's gone
out there onto the street with his counte-
nance shining like new tin milk pail in
the midday sun, looking as wise and pen
sive as SettiD' hen. L might as well try
and convince small boy that his cOrn-stalk
fiddle was not Sweeter music than his moth
er'S piano as to convince that man that he
is not
THE GREATEST JOURNALIST
in the country" He was fond of COM
pairing the cause of his client or party to
Harvey peak. and the other side to point
of cambria needle or various other dimin
utive objects. The general verdict is: I'VE
could better have spared a better man."
With him passes away one of the land
marks of the old regime in politics, law and
society; ''the old order changeth." The
newly elected district attorney of Custer
county takes novel method to recoup for
loss of salary, tile county commissioners
having reduced the same. He proposes to
adjust his services to the reduced pay, and
the other day in preliminary hearing in a
criminal case he appeared and put the de-
fendant through up to the point where
motion to commit would have been in
order, when the district attorney suddenly